RESPECT LIFE IN THE WORDS OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Mother Teresa, foundress of the Missionaries of Charity and recipient of
the Nobel Peace Prize, is recognized worldwide as the champion of human
dignity. Everyone from the child in the womb to the dying derelict is of
concern to Mother Teresa. The following is excerpted from her talks in
various countries, speak eloquently of her love and compassion for all
people, especially the poor and the defenseless.
"Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that he has
loved us and has sent his Son as an offering for our sins. Beloved, if God
has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another. No one has
ever seen God. Yet if we love one another, God dwells in us . . ." 1 John
4:10-12
We read in the scriptures that God loved the world so much that he gave
his son Jesus. And he gave Jesus to a virgin, Mary, the mother most pure.
And when he came in her life, immediately she went in haste to give the
joy of the presence of Christ to her cousin, Elizabeth. And there it
begins, the most wonderful story of the unborn child. It was the unborn
child that recognized the presence of Christ in the world. We read in the
scripture that the child leaped with joy when Mary came with Jesus in her
womb. This is the most beautiful presence and the most wonderful presence
of God's love for the world, the child.
An it is strange to say that it was the unborn child that recognized the
presence, the reason, for Christ's coming: that he had come to proclaim
the good news to the poor.
What was the good news that Christ had come to give? That God is love.
That God loves you. God loves me. That God has made you and made me for
greater things. . . to love and to be loved. We are not just a number in
the world. That's why it is so wonderful to recognize the presence of that
unborn child, the gift of God. The greatest gift of God to a family is the
child, because it is the fruit of love.
And it is so wonderful to think that God has created a child, has created
you, has created me, that very poor person in the street. That hungry
person, that naked person, he has created in his image, to love and to be
love, not to be just a number. And we read something very beautiful in the
scripture also, where God speaks and he says: "Even if a mother could
forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of
my hand. You are precious to me. I have called you by your name." That is
why as soon as a child is born, we give it a name. The name God has called
from all eternity--to love and to be loved. The child needs love and care
to fulfill God's desire of loving the world through the child. To harm the
child is an act against God's creation.
And, today, we look to the world and we see that little one, that unborn
child, has become the target of death, the target of destruction, of
destroying, of killing. And to think that God says, even if a mother could
forget, but it is impossible for a mother to forget. But even is a mother
could forget, I will not forget you. Yet today, the mother forgets her
child. Not only forgets it, but destroys it. And for what? The mother is
afraid of the child, of that little unborn child. . . the most beautiful
creation of God's love, the gift of God.
And so today, let us thank God that our parents loved us. Thank God. Let
us pray today that every mother will want her child. That no mother will
use means to destroy it. That no mother will have that feeling of not
wanting the unborn child. That no mother will be afraid to feed one more
child, to educate one more child, to take care of one more child. There is
hunger not only for a piece of bread, there is hunger for love. People
feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for. Nakedness is not only for a piece of
cloth. Nakedness is for that human dignity which we have sometimes lost.
Let us respect and love every possible life today. And to all the young
people I say: you are the future for family life. You are the future of
the joy of loving. You are the future of making of your life something
beautiful for God. . . .a pure love. That you love a girl or that you love
a boy is beautiful. But don't spoil it, don't destroy it. Keep it pure.
Keep your heart virgin. Keep your love virgin, so that on the day of your
marriage you can give something really beautiful to each other. . .the joy
of a pure love. And if a mistake happens, do not destroy the child; help
each other to want the child. . .to accept the child, the unborn child. Do
not destroy it, because one mistake should not be followed with another
evil. To destroy the unborn child is an evil. Maybe it was the mistake of
passion, but still that life is God's life, and you - the two of you
together - must protect it, must love it, and must take care of it.
Because that child is created in the image of God, is the gift of God.
Now, if we see God, immediately God's love works in us and we want to
love. Not in words, but in action. Where there is a woman that wants to
have an abortion - are you there? I have been told that in some places, if
you are poor and want to give birth to the child then you have to pay so
much; but if you have abortion you won't have to pay anything. Let us get
together and we will pay for that child. We want that child. We will help
that woman to have that child. We will pay. We will make sacrifices and
we'll pay.
Even for the poorest of the poor, the care and development of the child,
including the unborn child, and also the harmony of the parents are a
responsibility of both the governmental and private sectors of society. I
have sent word to all the police stations, to all the clinics, to all the
hospitals where we work; I have sent word: Please don't destroy the child;
I will take it. Any child. Anytime. Night and day. And our home for
children is packed. Everyday we get children, a wonderful gift from God.
God's blessing on that beautiful work is that we have many, many families
coming and adopting those children. And so we are bringing joy into the
family who has no children, who cannot have children; and we are giving a
father and mother's love to a child who would have been otherwise
destroyed. This is really love in action.
I believe you are a very rich country. But if you allow abortion to be
done in your country then you are a poor country, because you are afraid
of the child. You are afraid of the unborn child. The child must die. You
are afraid! Abortion is the killer of peace in the world. . . the
greatest destroyer of peace, because if a mother can destroy her own child
what is left for others but to kill each other - there is nothing to
prevent them.
The other day I was talking to a lady who had an abortion eight years ago.
And what did she tell me? Mother, I have a pain in my heart. Every year
whenever I see a child of eight years old, I say: my child would be eight
years old; last year it was seven years old. There's a pain in my heart.
She is a Hindu, non- Christian. . . but deep down, Christian or
non-Christian, that mother's love, that mother's pain is there. And right
up to the end of her life she will know: I have killed my child.
Wouldn't it be nice if all the countries would gather the money they're
spending on arms, and give it to Mother Teresa to build houses for the
poor.
And the people in Calcutta, they always make a joke. They say Mother
Teresa, the whole time she is talking about natural family planning, but
at the same time she herself is not practicing it. Everyday she has more
and more children. It is wonderful! This is a wonderful gift of God. . .
the greatest gift of God to a human family is the child, don't lose the
joy of having the presence of that child in your home. And, if necessary,
let us have a home shared where we can gather these children, maybe they
are not wanted. But we will take them. You and I together will do
something beautiful for God. We will give a wonderful home to a child who
would otherwise be unwanted. But we will make that child wanted.
Always, I will remember the last time I visited Venezuela. A very rich
family had given the sisters land to build a children's home, so I went to
thank them. And there in the family, I found the first child was terribly
disabled. And I asked the mother, "What is the child's name?" And the
mother answered me, "Professor of Love. Because this child is teaching us
the whole time how to love in action." There was a beautiful, beautiful
smile on the mother's face. "Professor of Love" they called their child,
so terribly disabled, so disfigured; from that child they were learning
how to love.
"Today, so many are dying just for a little love . . . for a little
concern, a little present of our service and our compassion." Also, I can
never forget how a little child, a Hindu child, taught me how to love the
great love. In Calcutta, we didn't have sugar; and a little Hindu child,
four years old, he heard Mother Teresa has no sugar. And he went home and
he told his parents, "I will not eat sugar for three days. I will give my
sugar to Mother Teresa." After three days, the parents brought the child
to our house. He had a little bottle in his hand, of sugar. . .the sugar
of a little child. He could scarcely pronounce my name, but he knew he
loved a great love because he loved until it hurt. It hurt him to give up
sugar for three days. But that little child taught me that to be able to
love a great love, it is not how much we give but how much loving is put
in the giving.
And so today, let us make that one resolution: that we will love one
another with that great love, until it hurts. And we will help every
family. We'll come to know our poor people, we will help our poor people;
and if they are afraid of having the child, we will help the family to
have the child. And we will help the child to grow and love.
"Let us keep the joy of loving God in our hearts, and by sharing this joy
with all we meet become instruments of God's peace. Because the world has
never needed that peace more than today." If the scriptures we read God
loved the world. Jesus loved you, loved me. Jesus loved the unborn child.
And how do we know that Jesus loves. Look at the cross - the hand are
still extended to embrace us. The head is still bent to kiss us. The heart
is still open to receive us. Are we there? Are we there? Today Jesus is
the same as yesterday, today and tomorrow.
And to make us understand that he wants us to love, as he loves you, and
loves me, he has made himself the bread of life - to satisfy our hunger
for God. . . .He has made himself the bread of life, so small, so
breakable, so that you and I can receive him. He is so small, the image of
a little unborn child, so helpless, but so that you and I will be able to
receive him and live. "The presence of the nuclear bomb in the world has
created fear and distrust among nations, as it is one more weapon to
destroy human life - God's beautiful presence in the world."
We need our lives to be woven with the Eucharist. We receive Jesus himself
in that bread, the bread of life; and he gives us that beautiful
opportunity to give him in return. He made himself the hungry one. The
naked one. The homeless one. So that you and I will feed him, will clothe
him, will give him a home. And he makes that as a condition again - at the
hour of death that is how we are going to be judged. For he said, "I was
hungry and you gave me to eat. I was hungry not only for bread, but for
understanding, love, to be wanted, to be known, to be somebody to
somebody. Naked not only for a piece of cloth, but naked for that human
dignity, for that respect. "Homelessness is not only not having a home
made of bricks. Homelessness is being thrown away by society. Unwanted. .
.just deserted. That man, that woman, that child, it doesn't matter."
Homelessness is not only for a home made of bricks, but homelessness comes
from that terrible loneliness that our shut-ins, the unwanted, the unloved
know along their way. Are we there? Do we know them? Do we see them?
I visited a home, one of the best homes in England. Our sisters live
there, working. I don't know, but I've never seen so many beautiful
things, so many wonderful things, like I've seen in that home, and yet
there was not a single smile on the faces of those people. All these old
people, they were all looking towards the door. And I asked the sister in
charge. I said, "Why, Sister? Why are they like that? Why are they not
smiling?" I'm so used to seeing smiles on people's faces. Because I think
smiles generate smiles, just as love generates love. And she said, "This
is how it is everyday. They are always waiting for somebody to come and
visit them. The loneliness is eating them up. And day after day they keep
looking, and nobody turns up." That unwantedness is great poverty.
Let us pray that we come to know our poor - right here. Maybe in our own
family we have the poor. Maybe we have plenty to eat and wonderful things
and beautiful houses - but maybe - my father, my mother, my wife, my
husband, my child is lonely. Do I know that? Could they feel unwanted?
Maybe I'm so busy that I have no time even to smile at my child. To smile
at my husband. To smile at my wife. There is poverty right in my family.
And if I want to remove that, I must bring prayer into my life. I must
pray. Whatever way you know how to pray.
Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is not made for some people. It's
meant for you and for me. . .for all of us. It's a simple duty. Because if
you learn to love, you learn to be holy. And to be able to love, you must
pray. For prayer will give us a clean heart, and a clean heart can see
God. "To be the hope of happiness in the world. To be the burning flame of
God in the world today. The world has never needed God's love more than
now."
If you have prayer in your life, I am not afraid for you. I am sure the
love of Christ will penetrate you, will strengthen you. And my prayer for
you is that you keep in your heart the joy of loving God through love and
compassion. And give that joy to everybody you meet. To people who are
working for you, and first of all in your own family. Love begins at home.
And it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
Bless the whole world today. Help the entire human family To live in
peace on this your earth, To provide bread for daily needs, To help each
other to live beautifully, In health, in Joy, in Love.
I have carved you in the palm of my hand. You are precious to me. I have
called you by name.
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Franciscan Communications
President: Anthony Scannell, Capuchin